Environmental Justice

Some Overdue Environmental Justice In Time for Shavuot

The Jewish festival of Shavuot, which begins at sundown this evening, commemorates the Israelites’ receiving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai.   Shavuot is thus the paradigmatic lawyers’ holiday given its focus on law and justice.  This connects nicely with the other two great pilgrimage holidays found in the Jewish Bible, giving us a trinity (so …

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Environmental Justice, Metrics & California’s San Joaquin Valley

This week the California Environmental Protection Agency issued a disturbing but worthwhile report on environmental justice issues in California. That report confirms what many environmental justice advocates and state residents already assumed: that the San Joaquin Valley is–far and away–the most environmentally-challenged region of the state. According to the CalEPA press release accompanying the report, …

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Industry Coalition Petitions for Supreme Court Review of D.C. Circuit Decision on Greenhouse Gas Rules

Yesterday, American Chemistry Council and a coalition of other industry groups filed a petition for U.S. Supreme Court review of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’ June, 26 2012 decision upholding the Environmental Protection Agency’s greenhouse gas rules.  As Dan previously discussed here, the D.C. Circuit denied rehearing of its decision in December.  The American …

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Guest Blogger Miriam Seifter: The Environmental Dimension of American Trucking

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard argument in American Trucking Associations, Inc. v. City of Los Angeles, a case addressing the preemptive scope of the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (FAAAA).  Over at Scotusblog, I’ve discussed the two relatively technical questions presented in the case.  The first asks whether two provisions in the Port of …

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California Sued Again Over Cap-and-Trade Program

Pacific Legal Foundation filed suit today against the state’s Air Resources Board on the grounds that the auction of allowances under California’s cap-and-trade program constitutes an unconstitutional tax.  In the new suit, Morning Star Packing Company v. California Air Resources Board, PLF argues that a) the auctioning of revenues constitute a tax which b) requires …

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Good environmental data matters for environmental litigation

If you aren’t reading Dave Owen’s blog posts over at Environmental Law Prof Blog, you should be.  His most recent post is about a recent Endangered Species Act (ESA) case in Texas: Environmental plaintiffs sued, arguing that the state of Texas had allowed too many water withdrawals upstream from the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, a critical breeding …

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How the Pacific Rivers Council case could affect environmental law

As Rick has already noted, a couple of weeks ago the Supreme Court granted cert to review the Ninth Circuit’s decision in U.S. Forest Service v. Pacific Rivers Council.  Rick expressed pessimism about whether the Ninth Circuit’s decision would be upheld in the Supreme Court.  I think he’s probably right about that, but there are …

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Climate Adaptation and the Two Chinas (and the Two Brazils, and the Two Indias….)

The world used to be divided into developed countries and developing countries, but a third group has now taken the stage: emerging economies like China, India, and Brazil that are growing very rapidly but haven’t yet attained developed country status.  But development in these countries is uneven.  In China, for example, there has been explosive …

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Did the Supreme Court just shut the courthouse door on environmental plaintiffs?

It’s not an environmental law case, but the Supreme Court’s decision in Clapper v. Amnesty International has a lot of environmental law folks talking.  Clapper was a lawsuit that sought to challenge the constitutionality of a provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that allowed the government to monitor a range of communications by …

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Benedict XVI, Environmentalist Pope

Pope Benedict announced today that he is stepping down.  As Pope, he was  a strong supporter of the environment.  For example, he has said this to say about sustainable development: The protection of the environment,  and the  safeguarding of  resources and of the  climate,  oblige  all leaders to act jointly, respecting the law and promoting solidarity with the weakest regions of the world (cf.  …

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